The Russian ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Alexander Grushko, denounced that the anti-missile maneuvers of the US and its allies confirm the destabilizing nature of this military project in Europe.

Grushko warned that the North-West of that ocean is not the best area to protect European countries from alleged threats of regions, with which Washington and its partners in the military bloc justify the creation of the missile defense.

As quoted by Novosti, he said that actually, these exercises are taking place near ‘points of crucial importance for Russia’, from the optical standpoint of nuclear deterrence and maintaining strategic stability.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon successfully tested the naval component of the missile defense in the territory of Western Europe, firing a missile from the American destroyer USS Ross (DDG-71).

The ship intercepted a missile in the northern Atlantic region, for the first time, during a test with a SM-3 Block IA missile, fired from outside the limits of the US missile defense.

The sources stressed that during the operation, a Terrier Orion short-range ballistic missile was launched from the missile base in the Hebrides. At the same time, another two anti-ship cruise missiles were launched, it was reported. The deployment of the missile defense in Europe was approved during the NATO summit held in Lisbon in 2010, and a year later it was reported that this project will be fully operational by 2018. Russia reacted demanding that a mandatory legal agreement be signed, expressing that the missile defense is not aimed against Russia, without a satisfactory response from the West.

The show of force by the United States in Europe coincides with the largest naval, air and ground maneuvers of NATO in the last 10 years, involving two nuclear powers, since the UK is also taking part in them.

These war games take place in Portugal, Spain and Italy, simultaneous to other exercises being conducted by the military bloc, with the participation of seven thousand troops in Poland, former member of the dissolved Warsaw Pact, and a country close to the borders of Russia.

This deployment coincides also with the air and naval operation conducted by Russia against the ISIL and other terrorist groups in Syria at the request of the constitutional government of Iraq.

Also in the background of this ‘demonstration of muscles’ of NATO is the so-called “refugee crisis”, caused by the aggression promoted by the US and its allies against Iraq, Libya, and more recently Syria.

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